Study of Women 1920

Ossip Zadkine made this watercolour painting, "Study of Women," with fluid washes of brown, blue, and peach. I can just imagine the act of painting here, the paper laid out flat, and the brush dances, laying down translucent layers of colour that build up to suggest forms. You can see how the figures emerge from the ground, or the other way around—as if the painter and the painting are working together to find the image. The watercolour has a life of its own, finding its way across the paper. I bet that was exciting for Zadkine! That dark line that defines the nose on all three figures is also so particular. I see that same line repeated in the work of other painters who were his contemporaries. It's like these artists were all in conversation, using and developing a particular visual language. Painting is so cool, like that, so embodied! We can keep thinking and making, but never find one definitive answer.